An Italian Summer – Bergamo

Something I love to do is TRAVEL. My most recent summer trip was to Italy.

My boyfriend and I have been going out years and our anniversary is at the very start of the year, right after Christmas and my boyfriend’s birthday – they all come within 2 weeks – so we rarely get each other “anniversary” presents. This is why it was such a lovely surprise to get a one way flight for both of us to Bergamo (near Milan) in June!

Kind of typical of us to not have even a return flight booked for a few months after this (we eventually booked home from Rome with some days accommodation in Rome at the end of our trip) so we only had a provisional plan for our trip- this is the freedom the interrail pass gives you – check out ticket prices here!

We landed into Bergamo at 9am local time and got the bus into the train station. We found a locker for our bags at the train station (actually across the road from the station) and hopped onto another bus to bring us to the funicular. This is the little uphill train to save those legs from trekking up the steep hills to the amazing old town high above.

Looks like clever me cut out the sides of the map of the “lower” old town…

Where the funicular lets you out is in, what we later discovered to be, a “lower” old town. There are really lovely squares and magnificent churches and buildings to wander around here.

Our wandering led us to discover there was another funicular that brings you up to the “upper” old town where the views are spectacular from the top of castle (Something you’ll learn about me is that I love castles and ruins and old buildings in general, so this was a great find for us!)

The funicular approaching to collect us from the “upper” old town

We had a lovely lunch here at San Vigilio where not only were the pizzas delicious and the wine cold but the lighting views were incredible! You can’t really see the amazing views that await you from the street but just trust me and try it out!

View from our table in San Vigilio – picture doesn’t do it justice!

After lunch, we rolled (literally!) back down the hill in the funicular and caught a bus from here back down to the modern city of Bergamo. We browsed a few shops because I realised I hadn’t brought a white top away with me – an essential for travel (you’re probably getting a sense for how unfashionable I am when my whole holiday would’ve been difficult without a plain white top!) My boyfriend went into a phone shop to try get a data only sim for his phone, we eventually broke down the language barrier and got that working!

We got a bus back to get our bags and headed to the train station to sprint onto a train to Milan 🚂

That whole post took waaaaay longer then i thought so I’ll leave Milan and the rest of my 2 week holiday for another day.. going to be slot of blog posts at this rate! Below are some more pictures​ from Bergamo.

Byyyyyye.

Piazza Vecchia

Flowers leading the way to the Duomo from Piazza Vecchia

Did i mention there was loads of churches with amazing architecture, including a huge Duomo? Ooppps….